High school football roundup

Published 1:45 pm, Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Coach Shad Hanna said the 23-19 victory at San Angelo Lake View was a big win for his team as the Rangers (2-2) traveled well, came out excited and ready to play.

"We played well for the most part," Hanna said. "We made a few mistakes, but the kids were excited the whole time. The lack of turnovers also helped."

Another positive for the Rangers is that they responded after trailing 19-11 at the half. Two of Tony Navarez's three rushing touchdowns came in the second half to help the Rangers edge the Class 4A Chiefs.

"That was a big step for us," said Hanna about the comeback. "We didn't panic, and we just played harder. We came out relaxed in the second half, played great defense and moved the ball well."

- Junior Timmy Murphy got his first start at quarterback for the Rangers, and Hanna said he did well. He rushed for 89 yards on 19 carries, was 13-of-27 passing for 113 yards and didn't turn the ball over.

"He got better as the game went, and he's developing into a good quarterback for us," Hanna said. "He threw the ball well and ran the ball well."

Murphy started because of the right-hand injury to Kam Williams, who was back on the field as a wide receiver.

"Kam did a good job," Hanna said. "He wasn't used to running that many routes, so he's a little behind in his conditioning. But it seemed to be an easy transition because he knew all the routes, being a quarterback."

Williams was one of the team's best receivers during the 2010 season before being thrust into the quarterback position because of injuries.

- Hanna said his team is improving but must be more consistent on both sides of the ball.

- Greenwood returns home to J.M. King Memorial Stadium on Friday night to host Sweetwater (3-1).

"They're a better football team than Lake View," Hanna said. "They run the ball well, and defensively, they're physical and they're going to come at you."

Big Spring

Coach Phillip Ritchey said mistakes were once again crucial in his team's 39-3 loss to Monahans.

Until the 2:21 mark of the second quarter, Monahans only had a 3-0 lead on the Steers (0-4).

"We were right there with them, but we made a critical mistake on a kickoff that pinned us deep at the 1, and that ended up giving them a touchdown," Ritchey said. "Then we had an interception that was run back to our own 15. We just keep shooting ourselves in a foot."

Ritchey admitted his team took a step back from the week before with the number of mistakes it committed.

"We made more mistakes on offense and in the kicking game than we've been making in the last few games," Ritchey said.

- Ritchey said WR Toby Rodgers got his "bell rung" against Monahans and is questionable against Midland Christian (1-2) on Saturday.

- Ritchey said the Mustangs are the "fastest team we've seen on film."

"We don't have the speed that we've had in the past, so that is a concern for us," added Ritchey. "And their running back (Christian Whigham) is the best we've seen in a long time."

- Tickets for Saturday's 7 p.m. game at Grande Communications will be available at the gate only. Adult tickets are $5 and student tickets are $3.

Andrews

The Mustangs got the signature win of the non-district part of their schedule with a 24-16 victory at Lovington, N.M., the No.1-ranked Class 3A team in New Mexico.

Coach Jeff Cordell said the win not only ended a two-game slide for his team, but it also was a big confidence booster.

"We finally executed on all three phases," he said. "In the past few games, we talked about how only two of the three would show up, and one would let us down."

Cordell said the special teams were especially big as punter Jake Higgs had a big punt in the fourth quarter that pinned Lovington at its own 1-yard line.

Shane Dolgener and the Mustangs later capitalized when the sophomore quarterback scored on a 15-yard run with 1:25 remaining in the game.

Dolgener followed his huge performance against Muleshoe by rushing for two touchdowns and throwing for another score. He also accounted for 247 yards (164 passing) on the night.

"The offense did some good things, but we've got to put points on the board when we need to," Cordell said. "We missed some opportunities. If not, it could have been a larger margin. We feel that if we get inside the 35-yard line and with Jake Higgs as our kicker, we need to come away with points."

- The Mustangs managed to come back from a 14-10 hafltime deficit, and Cordell said nobody panicked when the team was in the locker room.

Cordell said while his defense had some misalignments in the game, the Mustangs did a better job of tackling.

- Andrews (2-2) hosts Anthony (0-4) Friday at the Mustang Bowl.

Stanton

Coach John Peterson said the Buffaloes have lost senior fullback/linebacker Dallas Smith for the season because of a torn ACL in his left knee.

Smith suffered the injury in a 26-7 loss at McCamey, and he is the second key player with experience to be lost for the year. Fellow linebacker and starting running back Blake Evans was lost for the year with a torn ACL before the regular season began.

"It's just another piece of the puzzle that we have to replace," Peterson said. "We just have to put some kids in there and go play some football."

- Peterson said his team was overmatched against a bigger McCamey team, which included a couple of linemen who weighed about 300 pounds.

"They were good-sized kids. While we're not as big as we have been in the past, we don't have many over 200 pounds," Peterson said. "They took the fight to us."

Stanton (2-2) was held to 172 total yards and lost two fumbles.

"Some of our execution still needs to be cleaned up," Peterson said.

- Stanton begins District 2-2A Division II play on Friday when it travels to Coahoma (1-3).

Coahoma

Coach Trey Gardner said while his team played hard for four quarters, the Bulldogs still made too many mistakes that were costly in a 49-27 loss to Crane last week.

Coahoma (1-3) only lost one fumble, but Gardner said penalties at crucial times would hurt many of their drives.

"When we didn't stop ourselves, we were able to go score," Gardner said. "On the scoring drives we had, we didn't commit a penalty. But when we had a penalty, we were backed up and had trouble overcoming those mistakes. There is some encouragement in that we moved the ball well on a pretty good Crane football team."

- Defensively, Gardner thought his team did OK but it had trouble containing Crane quarterback Tyler Althof, who had more than 360 yards of offense and accounted for four touchdowns.

The good news is that Gardner believes his team is doing much better against the run since switching to a 3-4 defensive scheme.

- Gardner said his team is as healthy as it has been all season heading into Friday's District 2-2A Division II opener against Stanton.

MIDLAND CHRISTIAN

Mustangs coach Greg McClendon said his team wanted to focus on two areas during last week's bye, and that was offensive line play and defensive technique.

McClendon said the Mustangs (1-2) accomplished what he wanted on both issues, and in the process, the team came out of its week off a little healthier.

"We made good use of it, and these kids did a good job during it," McClendon said.

McClendon said the offensive line worked on finetuning steps and mechanics, and the defense worked on vision and how to break better on the ball.

"We didn't get anybody injured and we feel like the kids have come back, and their bodies have had a little chance to freshen up," McClendon said. "I expect a great week of practice, and hopefully, we will be a better team on the field on Saturday."

- McClendon said lineman Bryson Taylor will be out for a few weeks with a knee injury after having surgery recently. Taylor did not play in last week's game against Monahans.

- McClendon said he didn't have a hard time persuading his team that even though this week's opponent -- Big Spring -- is 0-4, the Steers are a good football team. MCS will face Big Spring at 7 p.m. Saturday at Grande Communications Stadium.

"We are 1-2, and we know what kind of football team we have," McClendon said. "Half of our kids went to the Monahans-Big Spring game and sat in the stands. They gave Monahans a great battle through the first half and finally broke a little bit. We saw how good they are."

TRINITY

Chris Jauz came away from last week's 73-58 loss to Grady knowing he has a good football team, but it is not quite as consistent as it needs to be to beat teams like the Wildcats.

Jauz said when his team did things right on both sides of the ball, the Chargers were good. When they missed assignments, Grady took advantage.

"When we did right we were very good, I guess is the best way to describe it," Jauz said Monday. "When we blew an assignment, they got exposed. We did a lot of things really well, but we had a lot of mistakes that you can't have."

Trinity rushed for 255 yards and threw for 93 yards in the victory.

- Even with last week's loss, Jauz said his team is farther along this season than in years past.

"Our team is always better at the end of the year," Jauz said. "Usually, we have a learning curve, and this year our learning curve is less. If we can fix a few things, I think we'll be all right."

- Trinity (2-2) will host Fort Davis on Friday at Coombes Field.

- Jauz said his team is healthy with no one expected to miss this week's game.

GARDEN CITY

No second half heroics were needed for the Bearkats (2-2) against O'Donnell during Friday's 64-14 victory. A season ago, Garden City needed a big second half to beat O'Donnell.

This year, Garden City jumped on the Eagles in the second quarter and scored 48 points to win by the mercy rule.

"We did what we intended to do," Garden City coach Vance Jones said. "They've got a good spread team, and they did get behind us a couple of times, but after that, we were able to shut them down."

- Jones said taking on O'Donnell was a good experience for the Bearkats' defense because the Eagles are a full-time spread team, and it is something Jones said his team doesn't see often.

"It's the first time we've played a team that totally ran the spread with a good spread back," Jones said. "It really was good for us and will help us get ready for Ropes in a few weeks, and they are good at the spread."

- Garden City is back at .500 this season, and Jones said one of his players came to him last week saying those two early loss to Motley County and Sterling City were good for the team.

"Winning does a lot of things for you, but I feel like we made some adjustments, and they understand that we had to do that," Jones said. "Even one of the seniors said it might have been the best thing for us to lose those two."

GRADY

Wildcats coach Brad Cox said last week's 73-58 victory against Trinity was a chance for his team to learn that it needs to stay focused and keep playing if it wants to be successful this season.

Grady (2-2) and the Chargers traded scores through much of the game, but the Wildcats were able to pull away in the second half by outscoring the Chargers 37-22 over the final 20 minutes.

"Until six minutes left, it was anybody's game," Cox said. "I guess we had a little more will, (and) that they did more than anything. It just showed whenever they played hard, played together, and believe in ourselves and our teammates that we can do good things."

Grady will take on Ropes at home this season.

RANKIN

The No. 3-ranked Red Devils continued to rack up yards and points against Spur last week, but coach Shannon Williams said Rankin's defense made the difference.

Not only did the Red Devils hold the Bulldogs to no offensive touchdowns, but Rankin also had nine missed tackles during the game that ended in the third quarter because of the mercy rule.

"They played fantastic," Williams said. "We had nine missed tackles, which is pretty good in six-man."

Williams said his defensive squad also had three caused fumbles, while recovering two and an interception.

- Williams said it was good to have Aaron Castillo back in the lineup after missing the past few weeks because of an injury. He scored a touchdown on offense, had nine tackles and recovered a fumble for a touchdown.

- Rankin will face another stiff test on Friday when it hosts No. 11 Meadow on Friday at Red Devil Stadium. Rankin began the season by beating then No. 1 Borden County in McCamey.